Unsung heroes in Edgware and Harrow awarded for work with Jewish Care

Unsung heroes who volunteer their time with a Jewish charity have been awarded for their hard work.

Jewish Care paid tribute to more than 40 people at its annual volunteers awards, held at the charity’s Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Campus in Golders Green.

Evelyn Tonchin and Lynda Lampert, who volunteer at the Edgware and Harrow Day Centre, were among the people presented with awards by comic scriptwriter and author Ivor Baddiel.

Ms Tonchin, who has volunteered for 16 years, was given an unsung hero award.

She said “I love working with the other volunteers and go in twice a week and I really enjoy it.

“I get to know the members and chat to them and I learn so much from them.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and it was enlightening seeing the young people who do lovely things and it would be great to see more young people get involved. It’s amazing to see how much volunteers do.”

The winners of the Young People Volunteering award were Perel Gorman, who attends Hasmonean Girls School, and Shayna and Batya Levy from the Lubavitch Senior Girls’ School.

They won the award for designing a mural for The Leonard Sainer Centre for people living with dementia in Edgware.

The 18-year-olds were inspired by conversations with members about what Judaism means to them.

Lord Levy, president of Jewish Care, said: “Our joint contribution as volunteers is invaluable to the organisation. Without it Jewish Care would have to reduce the services it offers.

“Again this year, we have been able to put a real value against the contribution of our volunteers and we estimate this to be over 1 million hours at 9 and a quarter million pounds.”

Sonia Douek, Jewish Care’s head of volunteering and community development said: “We greatly value the contribution of our volunteers in Edgware.

If we could give an award to every single volunteer we would. We value their time and are grateful for every minute of it. Tonight was an opportunity to celebrate extraordinary acts of volunteering. Some amazing people many of whom don’t realise quite how extraordinary their contribution is. We congratulate each and every one of our award winners and take our hats off to all our volunteers for their amazing contribution. This community wouldn’t be the same without them.”

Jewish Care is the largest health and social care charity for the UK’s Jewish community, caring for more than 7,000 people every week.

The organisation provides care for people who are elderly, suffer from medical conditions or are Holocaust survivors or refugees and offers support to families, carers and the bereaved.